Crisis forces ministry to suspend its projects

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Manpower has suspended almost all of its development projects, including the vocational training program, due to the worsening economic crisis, an official said yesterday.

Yudo Swasono, chief of the planning and development board in the Ministry of Manpower, told The Jakarta Post that all development projects except the nationwide labor-intensive ones had been suspended and its development budget frozen.

"The government recently decided to stop all development projects and refocus all budgets on the social safety net program and labor-intensive projects because of the worsening economic crisis."

He said that more and more companies had laid-off or fired their workers and the number of unemployed had risen from 14 million earlier this year to over 20 million.

He said the ministry had postponed all training programs at its 152 training centers across the country and all directorates at the ministry had been asked to take cost-cutting measures.

He agreed with the decision to suspend development projects, saying that ensuring a steady supply of food was more important to the country in its current circumstances.

"It is better for the government to suspend all projects and work to ensure the people don't go hungry," he said.

The ministry's development budget for the 1998/1999 fiscal year is Rp 140 billion. (rms)